Sanford and Ehsan

We live in a world of increasing clutter, so my 2010 new year's resolution has something to do with simply being able to get rid of junk.

I used to think this inability to discard things has something to do with being Iranian. But having Oriental roommates changed that. Anyone whose origins lie in the Asian continent will clearly be stricken by this.

Then I used to think my ability to properly dispose of trash was hindered by my working class economic background. But the credit crunch changed that, too. Anything no longer needed is considered garage sale-worthy, perhaps something to put up on Ebay or Craigslist. Stockbrokers became pawnbrokers.

My grandpa Ehsan was your typical Iranian baba bozorg who thought every damn nook and cranny and crumb lying around was worth something. Well, except things that weren't his -- my Nintendo was junk, but that 30-year-old lampshade he found at a neighborhood yardsale for two bucks? Che jaaleb! That's what happens when you've been poor (and, um, uneducated) your whole life I guess.

Expounding on the subjecting of disposability was this blog entry from the @nerdist, Chris Hardwick. In the mid-Nineties he hosted Singled Out on MTV (back when MTV was cool and relevant). The game show featured personable, attractive, charming singles from around Southern California. So naturally, several times they had a Persian guy or gal as the contestant. As a teen, seeing a Persian peer appear with a name like Amir made me dream of one day packing my bags and heading from the Midwest to Westwood. (Closest I got then was interviewing Jenny McCarthy's sister for my college newspaper.)

One of those Persian contestants was a college kid named Yasmin Vossoughian, who I randomly met recently at CurrenTV, where she's a broadcaster at as well as at Gallup and Reza Aslan's BoomGen. Facebook has it that she got engaged yesterday, on New Years Day.